POn Wednesday evening, August 16th, more than 20,000 people attended the event the order to evacuate the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, about fifteen kilometers from its walls, threatened by large forest fires. Local residents rushed to Yellowknife’s small airport on Thursday as a long line of cars drove down the only freeway.

” The freeway was completely blocked » Julie Downes, a Yellowknife resident, was out of town Wednesday night and told AFP about several fires over the phone ” the size of houses » lick the roadside. ” We, the people of the north, are us climate refugees »adds in a trembling voice the woman who fled with her husband and their three dogs.

Canada has been experiencing a record-breaking fire season since the spring. The country has faced extreme weather events in recent years, the intensity and frequency of which have increased due to global warming. In total, More than half of the territory’s population is under evacuation orders.

” A little panic in the city »

Multiple videos on social media show vehicles driving through thick smoke from the fires at night and being led by patrol cars towards neighboring Alberta province, where several reception centers have been set up. However, the closest of these is 1,150 kilometers from Yellowknife.

” I’ve never had to drive in such circumstances », Nadia Byrne, another resident who left the city on Tuesday night fearing the situation would worsen, told AFP. She had to leave her policeman husband behind and describes the scene as the worst ” scary » Of his life. ” Everything seems unreal to me at the moment, I never expected such a situation »adds the young woman of 24 years, saying that she is very ” stressed » And ” fearful ».

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” When the evacuation order was announced, there was a certain panic in the city. »adds Sylvia Webster, in her thirties, as she finishes packing her things for departure. ” But today everyone is calmer »adds this graphic designer, aware that they ” risk of losing everything » for his house is on the outskirts of town, where firebreaks have been built and trees felled.

Several commercial and military flights were also scheduled south from Yellowknife on Thursday. Around the city, vehicles backed up at gas stations, leaving nearly deserted neighborhoods, while mid-air Canadairs flew near homes.

The fire could reach the city this weekend

The city is threatened ” a fire in the west » And ” Without rain, the fire could reach the outskirts of the city this weekend », Northwest Territories Environment Minister Shane Thompson said on Wednesday evening, ordering the evacuation of residents. Precipitation is expected in the coming days, the first of this month. But they should arrive with thunderstorms and lightning, threatening to start new fires.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will convene an intervention group on Thursday. The day before, he pointed out that the armed forces are still deployed to provide assistance to the people of the region. Therefore, several planes and helicopters and a hundred soldiers were mobilized to help with the evacuations.

ALSO READWhat is Copernicus, the European program that studies the planet?The villages in the region are several hundred kilometers apart ” particularly difficult » to evacuate by land, said Mike Westwick of the local fire department earlier this week. This is the second time, alongside Yellowknife, that a major Canadian city has been evacuated due to wildfires. In 2016, 100,000 people were forced to flee Fort McMurray, Alberta. Halifax suburbs on the Atlantic Seaboard were also evacuated earlier in the year.

More than 1,050 fires are currently ravaging Canada from east to west, including 236 in the Northwest Territories. Nearly 14 million hectares — roughly the size of Greece — have burned in the country since the start of the season, nearly double the last record set in 1989. And the season could last two months, authorities warned last week.

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